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White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing; CDC Says, Variants Continue to be a Great Concern. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired February 01, 2021 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: And public transportation is one of their priority areas.

[11:30:04]

On the president's first full day at the office, he issued an executive order requiring mask-wearing during travel.

Now, on Friday afternoon, the CDC issued an order requiring travelers to wear masks when utilizing public modes of transportation, like planes, buses, trains and ships. And after that order was issued, the TSA announced directives to the public transportation sector to require masking.

This is a very meaningful step. It is also a patriotic one that improves safety and demonstrates respect for those around us.

Next, I want to give an update to our vaccination program. We know that even as millions of Americans are getting vaccinated, many who are eligible for the vaccine are still frustrated as they try to make appointments and determine where vaccines are available. We have been steadily increasing the rate of vaccine administrations with a seven- day average now of 1.3 million vaccines a day.

As of last evening, over 25 million Americans have had at least their first shot. That is 1 in 13 Americans, one in ten adults.

We've talked here about the difference that exists between the amount of vaccine we have shipped to states and the number of vaccines that have been administered. We have now delivered 50 million vaccines in 31 million have been administered.

Okay, so one question everyone has is why is there such a difference, 19 million between the doses delivered and administered. Let me explain some of the source of that difference.

When the rollout of the vaccine first began in December and early January, it is no secret that the program got off to a slow start. This slow start obviously caused a delay in people getting their first doses. But not only did this delay first doses but it created a backlog of second doses that have been sitting in states waiting for the three to four week period to pass before they can be administered. That is three weeks in the case of Pfizer, and four in the case of Moderna.

Given this, as people begin to come back for their second shots, in addition to all of the other continued improvements that we are witnessing and participating in, the state vaccination programs, we expect the efficiency of doses being administered will steadily improve.

On January 20th, states had administered 46 percent of their inventory. Today, that number is 62 percent. We are focused on this every hour of every day.

There is another thing going on that I want to alert people to particularly the nation's providers. We believe that some health care providers are regularly holding back doses that are intended as first doses and instead keeping them in reserve for second doses for patients. We want to be clear that we understand why health care providers have done that, but that it does not need to happen and should not happen.

In some cases, providers are canceling appointments with patients, they could take preventing Americans from getting their first dose of the vaccine as quickly as it needs to happen. We completely understand that this has been a direct result of the lack of predictability many states and providers have had regarding how many doses that they would receive. That is one reason why last week we announced that federal government will be providing a continual three week window into vaccines that will be shipped.

With this action, states and vaccine providers will more rapidly use their allotment of first doses to vaccinate as many people as quickly and equitably as possible because they now have the predictability that the second dose will be there when the time comes.

Lastly, I want to start -- I want to give an update on the topic of low dead space syringes. Low dead space syringes are the syringes that allow the sixth dose of the Pfizer vaccine to be administered. On Friday, an answer to a question, I said 100 percent of Pfizer kits contained low dead space syringes.

[11:35:00]

As promised, I went back and checked. The facts that are that every vial of Pfizer does indeed come with the equipment to get six doses out of a vial.

To further clarify this, approximately 80 percent of Pfizer kits include the most common low dead space syringes and 20 percent use other syringe types that could be used to get the sixth dose out. This accounts for the fact that in some cases a different type of syringe is preferable. More to come later this week, but as of 11:30 on Monday, we think this is a productive start to the week.

With that, we're happy to take a few of your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you and thank you everybody for joining. As always, we have time for a few questions. And as a reminder, we'll have time throughout the week to answer some more. So if you haven't already, please raise your hand.

First, we're going to go to Joe Henke at Channel 11 in Atlanta.

JOE HENKE, REPORTER, 11ALIVE ATLANTA: Hello, this is Joe Henke at 11Alive News NBC-affiliate in Atlanta.

A quick question, is there a position from the White House on some of the interviews we've heard of whether states should be focusing on just a single first dose and getting as many people vaccinated as possible versus doing the full two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines?

SLAVITT: So maybe I will turn it over to Dr. Fauci to explain the posture and, of course, Dr. Walensky, please feel free to add as well.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Yes. So the policy is that we certainly want everyone who gets the first dose to get their second dose when you're dealing with a two-dose regimen, namely Moderna and Pfizer. And as you well know, that is 21 days for Pfizer and 28 days for Moderna.

What sometimes leads to confusion among people when you say we want to get as many people to get their first dose as possible means rather than holding back on doses that would be designated for the second dose, given that we now have more and more confidence in the even flow of doses to go to locations and as Mr. Slavitt said that we're going to give a three-week window so people will know the doses that they're going to get and when they're going to get them, we don't want to hold back things.

In other words if you give the 50 million doses to individuals and then the next time around you get more doses, when you're at that third or fourth week, the first priority will always be to get the people who have gotten their first doses to get their second doses. And then additional doses will be given to the next group of people who will get their first doses.

In this way, there are no doses that are hanging around. A dose that is available is going to go into someone's arm. If a person is ready for their second dose, that person will be prioritized. If a person has not gotten their first dose but you've taken care of all of the second dose people, then you go ahead with the first dose.

So that is the policy that we've had and that is working well now.

SLAVITT: Thank you, Dr. Fauci. Dr. Walensky, anything you would add?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I would just comment that the clinical trials with the two vaccines that have been authorized now have a two-dose -- have two doses in the trials. We said we would follow the science in rolling out the vaccines, and that is our intent. 21 days is what was done in the Pfizer trial and 28 days is what was done in the Moderna trial. There are obviously concerns if we don't go with what was done in the trials themselves, that the vaccine would be less durable, it wouldn't be -- work for as long and then, of course, there is an ongoing concern that we would see the emergence of more variants if there was low-level virus and it was allowed to mutate.

So until we have further data, and there are data that are being sought, but until we have further data, we intend to follow the trials and to use the science to say 21 days for two doses with Pfizer and 28 for Moderna.

SLAVITT: Thank you. Next question, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next, we go to Sabrina Siddiqui at The Wall Street Journal.

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you so much for doing this.

You've obviously signaled that you're encouraged by the developments with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I was wondering, if authorized, how does that get incorporated into the administration's distribution framework, particularly with respect to the timetable of vaccinating most Americans by the end of the summer?

And, secondly, given the broader goal, of course, of vaccinating as many people as possible, what kind of a messaging challenge might be posed by its lower effectiveness when compared to the other available alternatives?

SLAVITT: Thank you for the question. I think I'll take the first half and I'll pass the second part to Dr. Fauci, because I think he does a very nice job explaining what is actually different and what is important about those differences.

[11:40:10]

So, the short answer to your question is it would help. Obviously, it would help. But I want the public to understand that this administration is not getting ahead of the FDA and we are not planning for facts that aren't yet in evidence. So the numbers and the dates that we've talked about here are relative to what are the two-dose -- two vaccines and the two-dose regimens on the market.

Obviously, there would be some improvement should there be a third dose. I would tell you that the expectation, however, should not be that that is an immediate dramatic shift. The expectation should be that their commitment, the schedule, if it were to be approved under EUA, would be about 100 million doses by the end of the second quarter, that is the end of June.

And I would not, at this point, be overly confident that those doses would come evenly. I would expect that they could come towards the end of that contract, so just to set expectations.

Dr. Fauci, do you want to add anything and take the other part of the question?

FAUCI: Yes, sure. You explained it well, Andy. Let me take the other part of the question.

I mean, certainly, when the J&J data were rolled out, that I actually made a comment that the -- at the conference, at the NIH press conference, that this would likely be a messaging challenge when people think superficially of a number, 72 percent versus 94 to 95 percent.

But the thing that is important that you need to put into the equation is what you really want to do. You want to prevent people from getting seriously ill. You want to prevent them from getting into the hospital and you want to prevent them from dying.

And if you look at the data and, again, the data is going to be looked at in a more granular way by the FDA, and we'll be hearing more about that, that the J&J with its 72 percent overall efficacy in the USA actually had a very good record with regard to severe disease to the point of virtually when you were looking at South Africa, which was an important part of that trial, there were virtually no hospitalizations or deaths of the individuals, even though the number was lower when it comes to any kind of disease.

So there will be situations where people will say to themselves, do I want to get a single-dose vaccine and know that I'm protected against serious disease or do I want to go with a number that is a 94 to 95? And I can tell you that there are many people who would rather have the convenience of a single-dose disease and there may be areas of the country and/or different age groups, depending upon the data, as we'll wait until we get it from the FDA, that may make that more attractive.

So I don't think we should be put aback by the fact that there was a difference in the initial number of any kind of efficacy because there is a lot more to protection than just preventing from getting infected. We want to keep people out of the hospital and we don't want people to die.

And in that regard, this will be value added not only in the United States, but certainly in the developing world. I just got off the phone this morning with some colleagues from South Africa and you could not imagine how excited they are about the idea of getting a minimal cold chain required, cheap, one-shot vaccine means an awful lot. Thank you.

SLAVITT: Thanks, Dr. Fauci.

WALENSKY: Maybe I'll just add that after the FDA meets the advisory committee on immunization practices of the CDC, we'll also be meeting and we'll be giving advice on how best to utilize the vaccine on once we see the data.

SLAVITT: Thank you, next question, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Next, we're going to go to Francesca Chambers at McClatchy. All right, I don't know what is going on there.

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, MCCLATCHY: Can you hear me? Sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you're there, Francesca.

CHAMBERS: Okay, great. Sorry, I wasn't unmuted before. But I asked what is the demographic breakdown of who is getting the vaccine based on the data that you have and what is the federal government doing to improve the reporting of that data?

[11:45:00]

And, relatedly, what is your recommendation to states based on that data to improve racial equity and how the vaccine is distributed? Thank you.

SLAVITT: Thank you. Dr. Nunez-Smith?

DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, CHAIRWOMAN, COVID-19 HEALTH EQUITY TASK FORCE: Well, thank you so much for the question. So, you know, the data that I showed is that we really don't have as much information as we need in terms of race, ethnicity data. I know the CDC will be releasing more specifics on that shortly and soon.

We have to just double down on our commitment, in terms of the following and leading with this equitable response. It is very encouraging, as shared that at the beginning of pandemic in terms of race (INAUDIBLE) hospitalization and as well as mortality, the data were insufficient and incomplete and we've made great progress there.

So I think there is reason for optimism. We are continuing to meet with the states and locals to talk with them about the equity plan, provide technical assistance along the way. So that is certainly going to continue to be part of the work that we do as we seek to get better data for equity priorities.

SLAVITT: Yes, so we are, of course, a lot burden falling on states, public health departments, people giving vaccines, we recognize that. We want to support them. But we do have to ask them to really make an extended effort now to report race and ethnicity data as they submit their vaccinations. It is extremely important.

There are many people in this country that will find their way to a vaccine no matter how difficult it is. There are many other people in this country who are at greater risk of hospitalization and death, as Dr. Nunez-Smith pointed out, who we need to assist in getting the vaccines to. We can't do that, as Dr. Nunez-Smith so eloquently put it, until we have the information at our finger tips. So that is a callout we're asking for.

Next question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, we have time for a couple more questions. Next, we're going to Jonathan Cone. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, thanks for calling on the question. In terms of vaccines that have been allocated to states but not yet got into arms, I know in a lot of states there is a lot tied up in the federal and long-term care partnership that CVS and Walgreens is running in. There are reports out there, everything from they're not vaccinating quick enough to the criteria, that is causing them to hold off too many on the side.

I'm wondering do you guys feel like that is going as well as it could be? Do you have any plans to either try to speed up that process with them or change the way those doses are set aside so that some of them can go elsewhere and get used more quickly, just what is your assessment of that?

SLAVITT: Jonathan, so the CDC is going to release information later today, I believe, about vaccination levels in long-term care facilities. I'm not going to front run that other than to say that I think you'll get a sense, you'll get a picture of how successful that program has been.

Now, I think one of the things that we understand is that, irregardless -- just regardless of the success rate, there also are -- was an over estimation made as to how many people are in long-term care facilities. And so there are, in some places, excess doses. And we've been working with states and with those distributors to make sure that those excess doses quickly get to the places that they're needed when they exist.

Next question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Last, we'll go to Tamara Keith at NPR.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Thank you very much. So, I have a few questions about this new test that is being pushed out. At $30 a pop, that sounds cheap compared to the tests that are available now but it's also a lot of money if you're thinking, I don't know, I'm not going to test my kindergartner every day, once a week.

So how do you really see this working? Who would be paying for these tests? How does a $30 test fit with your equity goals? And are there even going to be enough of them for it to be used for screening?

SLAVITT: Thanks, Tamara. So, look, the purpose of today's announcement, which is very exciting, is to move to mass production and scale. And, obviously, the unit costs will come down only when we can get to that mass production and scale. So there is a chicken an egg problem that I think we have taken a step to solve today by creating mass production so that we will have tens of millions of these tests out there.

[11:50:00]

Secondly, we know there are efforts to create even lower costs and more innovative approaches, and we welcome those. The RADx program and many of the other programs to drive innovation has unleashed, in many respects, a side of America that we haven't talked a lot about during the response to this virus, which is the entrepreneurs and the innovators and the inventors. And so I couldn't agree more that things that are not low cost and accessible don't do us all the good we need.

Third point you make is a good question which we don't have a complete answer for today, which is a question about policy. What will the federal government, state governments, local governments, school districts, what steps will they take to make these tests more available and more affordable?

And I think that is an important equation for everyone at the state, federal and local level to factor into their thinking and their planning. Because you're absolutely right that life doesn't change until we create more ubiquitous capability not only around what we've talked about here, vaccines, but also testing and also many of the therapies. So that's the work ahead of us.

I think with that, I want to thank everybody for joining this briefing. We will be back on Wednesday to do the next COVID-19 response briefing.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You're listening there to the White House COVID response team offering a briefing with some really important headlines coming through, some clarity on some questions.

Let me bring in CNN Medical Analyst, Viral Specialist, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, to walk through some of this with me. One of the things that really sticks out, Doctor, as we're listening to this, is we heard from the CDC director that the variants that have popped up are of great concern, is how she put it, and Dr. Anthony Fauci saying that is all the more reason why it is more important than ever to get as many people vaccinated as possible. As he said, viruses cannot mutate if they cannot replicate. Talk us through that.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, incredible briefing. I'm so glad that we're having these transparent briefings. And I circled that also. There was so much information here. That is the key.

And I think people need to wrap their head around the fact that if the virus is floating around, it cannot make new viruses. It needs to infect someone in order to replicate. And in the replication process is where mistakes happen, and those mistakes are called mutations.

And that's when, if you make a mutation that causes the virus to be stronger and survive longer, well, survival of the fittest, that is going to be the dominant virus. So that cannot be emphasized enough.

If we want to open our economy, if we want to save people's lives, we need to stop the amount of virus in the community, not just in the person, indeed, in the world, and that is going to take vaccination, and that is going to take masks and social distancing. Replication is caused only by people getting infected. So we need to stop that.

BOLDUAN: Another element of that equation that you're laying out is testing. First, screening and testing on a much larger scale than we have seen. You and I have talked about this since the beginning of the pandemic on how important testing is.

We have to be able to test our way out of this thing. The first at- home test, quick test, received emergency approval in the December in the prior administration's FDA. But they announced a huge influx of investment, $230 million that's going to be going to help this company alum to scale up production. What do you think that means?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think that means that we're going to be able to know if we are COVID positive. But that does no good unless you take the second step, which means that if you are positive, then you have to follow the recommendations of quarantining. If you're positive and you still fly, if you're positive and you still go to the grocery store, it does no good.

So this is the first step in knowing where we are, because this is an at-home test, so the responsibility is an individual one. We need to know if we're infectious. If we are, then we need to follow the quarantining guidelines. But that's a huge potential step.

BOLDUAN: One of the things that has been lingering out there is what makes up for this difference we've seen in the number of vaccine doses that have been distributed and the number of vaccine doses that have been administered? The latest numbers, as I wrote them down, were 50 million vaccines have been distributed, 31 million have been administered. They gave something of an explanation of what makes up that difference. Does it explain it to you?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, it was a little bit murky. I'll definitely give you that. And I think, again, the problem is that there was no clear directive from the federal government to the states.

[11:55:05]

Now, the two vaccines that we have require two vaccinations in order to reach that high level of protection. And, again, as Dr. Walensky said, and there was a little bit of not differencing between them, but she said, listen, everybody needs to get that second dose. And Dr. Fauci said yes, but they can get it eventually. The important thing is to get that first dose. And I agree with him 100 percent. The important thing now is to get that first dose.

So I think if we are a little bit confused, then the states are confused and the local health departments are confused, and some of those people were holding back for the second doses as opposed to giving the first.

BOLDUAN: Another thing that came out I wanted your opinion on is Dr. Nunez-Smith saying almost half the vaccine records that they have lack data on race and ethnicity. Why is this such a problem?

RODRIGUEZ: That I have no idea why it is a problem. Because as you inject someone, when you vaccinate them, you should be able to write their ethnicity. If someone comes in for testing, you should be able to write their ethnicity. But a major thing, the take-home, I think, in what she said is the social almost bias that is occurring in our society with access to health care among communities of color and Native American communities and people that are of lower socioeconomic.

Now, unfortunately, the chickens have come home to roost and this is now creating problems. And the horrible inequity in death rates among people -- black people and Hispanic people and Native Americans is something that needs to be addressed very quickly.

BOLDUAN: Doctor, thank you so much for coming on and offering your very important expertise on this. We had a really important briefing today, updates, critical updates coming from the White House coronavirus task force, the response team. And as Dr. Rodriguez pointed out, they're having these regular briefings. There will be another one of these briefings on Wednesday, so more updates to come. It's been a busy hour for us.

John King is going to pick up our coverage after a quick break.

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